The invention relates to the issuance and validation of gaming machine payout tickets containing a validation number, where the purpose of the validation number is to prevent or hinder counterfeiting of the tickets.
Since Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA), there has been a substantial increase in the number of small gaming establishments operated by or under the regulation of Indian Nations or in Indian lands. Some of these establishments are large operations, comparable to casinos located in Las Vegas. Many of these establishments, however, are small operations without the elaborate and expensive computer and telecommunications equipment often found in large casinos. These small casino operations have a need for security and bookkeeping procedures, but are unable to provide such functions by means of elaborate and expensive computer and telecommunications equipment. Rather, they require inexpensive and uncomplicated means for providing these functions. In particular, they have a need for inexpensive and uncomplicated means for preventing counterfeiting scams in payout for video poker and video slot games, as well as similar gaming products popular in small casinos.
Payout tickets bearing validation numbers have been widely used to aid in providing security and audit functions in payout for video poker and video slot games, as well as similar gaming equipment popular in small casinos. Payout tickets have been small sheets of paper, similar in dimensions to cash register receipts used in supermarkets and other retail stores. Such payout tickets may contain the following, among other, information imprinted on them: name of establishment, identification number of gaming machine and/or floor location identification number of gaming machine, date and time of ticket issuance (i.e., date and time of occurrence of payout event in gaming unit), cash amount to be paid (payout amount), ticket serial number, and a "validation number" (explained below). The data printed on the ticket is generated by electronic circuitry on a printed circuit board controlling play of the gaming machine or by an auxiliary printed circuit board. After the ticket is printed within a gaming machine, the ticket is dispensed or provided to the customer by conventional means, such as dropping it into a delivery chute when its printing is completed. The customer then takes the ticket to a cashier station for cash redemption and the cashier (if he or she follows instructions) tests the ticket for validity before making payment.
Such payout tickets have been widely used in gaming equipment operated under various state and provincial regulatory programs. Some of these regulations have required payments to winners of games to be made, in the first instance, not in cash (as in a machine that dispenses winnings in coins via a hopper) but instead by printed payout tickets which are then cashed in at cashier locations. Such regulations facilitate requiring the payees to present identification for subsequent assessment of state and federal taxes, and hinder schemes to tamper with the equipment. They also facilitate controlling payouts and prevention of certain schemes for skimming proceeds. Alphanumeric ticket printers used for this purpose in gaming machines have included the NCR Corp. printer models 2567 (using RS-232C interface) and 2191/2192 (using proprietary TTL interface).
A validation number for a gaming machine payout ticket is a control number, ordinarily generated in a programmed microprocessor chip by a scheme, protocol, or algorithm, in order to prevent successful counterfeiting of payout tickets and redemption of bogus tickets. Unless the validation number printed on the ticket is correct, no payment is made.
Various different validation expedients have been used in the gaming industry. A validation number V can be a function V=F(u.sub.1, u.sub.2 . . . u.sub.n), where the parameters U.sub.1, U.sub.2 . . . u.sub.n are one or more such parameters as the time, date, machine-identification number, payout amount, and ticket serial number. Depending on the function F, the validation number V so developed can be inversely processed to yield the payout amount, and that figure can be checked against the payout amount printed on the ticket to determine if they are the same. Thus, a payout amount p, may be represented as G(V), where G has an inverse relationship to F such that G=F.sup.-1. (Purely hypothetically, F could be log, so that V=log p. G would then be antilog [log.sup.-1 ], so that p=log.sup.-1 V. Or F could be square and G would then be square root.) For functions permitting this operation, p can be determined by using a microprocessor chip to perform appropriate operations on validation number V. The ticket passes the security test if the value of p so computed is the same as that printed on the payout ticket. Other expedients termed "encryption" systems are also used in the gaming industry, in which the term is used to designate a variety of ways to disguise and protect a ticket validation system against counterfeiting.
A player (customer) ordinarily collects his or her winnings by presenting a payout ticket to a cashier. The cashier may enter various numbers printed on the ticket into a personal computer by keypunching in accordance with predetermined instructions, so that the computer can perform validation computations based on the keypunched numbers. A problem with the foregoing currently used method of validating tickets is that the keypunching by the cashier, so that a computer can do the necessary processing, is time-consuming and tedious, and data entry errors by the cashier may occur. (It has been estimated that manual data entry using a keyboard produces one incorrect character entry for every 300 keystrokes, and that it takes a person entering such data approximately six seconds to enter 12 characters.) Moreover, when cashiers in a casino are busy they may simply not check the validation numbers at all before redeeming the payout amount printed on the ticket.
A further problem with currently used ticket procedures is that state or provincial regulatory requirements or good accounting practices often require daily auditing of tickets. It is often required by regulation that tickets be printed in duplicate, one copy going to the customer and the other copy being retained inside the game machine. The retained copies of tickets are then checked by examining them and recording each entry. This is a time-consuming and error-prone procedure.
A summary of apparatus art that is here adapted for utilization in the invention may be found in Hayman U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,636 ("Interface between data reading wand and cash register display").